And here, from the words of their own modern-day Augustine:(Lewis, C.S. "A Reply to Professor Haldane." On Sotries. ed. Walter Hooper. Harcort & Brace Co. Orlando, Florida. 1996.):Quote: “I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber Barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations. And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future. To attach to a party programme--whose highest claim is to reasonable prudence--the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxication (75-76).”

I never cared for Lewis much – he was a drab fantasy writer, and while I am foursquare against religion, when someone’s right, they’re right.

Never thought I’d see the day where I agreed with C.S Lewis – anything is possible, I suppose.

Anything that has a natural explanation, I should say.

I will repeat myself, again and again, to the religious factions in this country, until it finally sinks in:This isn’t YOUR country. This isn’t MY country. It’s OUR country.

8 comments:

say no to christ
said...

Ramen Ra!

I have lived a good part of my life in the bible belt and I have seen first hand the discrimination agaisnt atheists, pagans and other non-christians.

While I lived in NC, a wiccan mother had her children taken from her for being a witch. The peace and justice group I belonged to fought our asses off to get those kids back to their mother and shit like that goes on everyday out there! I can tell you many more heart breaking stories about christians discrimanation against others. In Ohio a young wiccan girl hung herself after being yelled at and spat on by an angry ADULT christian crowd that wanted her out of the school where their christian children went. Christians absolutely disgust me!

SNTC:I have lived a good part of my life in the bible belt and I have seen first hand the discrimination agaisnt atheists, pagans and other non-christians.Hard to believe we live in America, huh?While I lived in NC, a wiccan mother had her children taken from her for being a witch. The peace and justice group I belonged to fought our asses off to get those kids back to their mother and shit like that goes on everyday out there!That's just fucked up. I'm proud of you, that you & others went & did a noble thing like that. Outstanding.In Ohio a young wiccan girl hung herself after being yelled at and spat on by an angry ADULT christian crowd that wanted her out of the school where their christian children went.Just sickening.Christians absolutely disgust me!Small wonder the rage, then. When a philosopy that espouses 'love thy neighbor' can't seem to walk the talk.

RA...Where have I been?The same place I am now.In between.Which ought to be the destination of survival.And other blah-deh-blah words to this effect.Honestly...I'm FUBAR.Forget me.I'm trying to, at least.Scary how easy it is.See ya in the HomeLandSecurity-Funny-papers.

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I've become a sort of 'Renaissance man' w/o intending to, having done all sorts of interesting bylines, from carny to computer programmer, wild child to novelist, etc.
Reinvention is key to the progress of the individual.